Guilin sightseeing

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Our first day of Guilin, Cherry showed us around town. Guilin is not very big. We started out with Elephant Trunk Hill. The story goes that there was an elephant who was drinking out of the Li River and didn't want to go home, so it turned to stone so it could always be at the beautiful river and city of Guilin. There is a similar type hole in the rock in France, but it is man-made.

Next we went to Fobo Hill, a scenic area named after General Fobo, who I am still unclear of who he really is. Cherry kept asking if we wanted to take a picture next to his statue and CL and I both said, "No, thanks!". Funny.

At this point, our legs and my calves were still aching from Huangshan. Every step up and every step down reminded us of our soreness. Ugh. Nonetheless, we climbed up Fobo Hill and enjoyed the hazy views. Nearby is the 1,000 Buddha Cave, Sword-testing stone, 1,000-men pot, and a Banyan Tree. Nice to have a look, but I wasn't necessarily impressed.

Next we visited a painting store (designated shopping) which was nice to see the art work, but not for buying. Then we visited Red Flute Cave, which is a cave with all kinds of cool rock formations. I surprisingly liked the cave, despite the tacky lights inside. The rock and cave was interesting. My pictures didn't come out great, but you get the idea.

Then we went to some pearl store. Guangxi Province neighbors the S. China Sea where a lot of salt water pearls are produced/found. CL bought a pair of earrings; I just looked. I still like pearls for some reason, despite the grandma look to them.

We proceeded to lunch and tried Guilin mifen, a local noodle specialty. We had some pork dish and some rice/taro dish that I didn't particularly like. Taro seemed to be really popular in Guilin.

After lunch we went up to Yao Mountain, another scenic mountain were you can see the Guilin view. Beautiful, but again, it was hazy. The cable car ride up costs 75 rmb. We took a superslide down which was fun (and faster!).

The weather was fairly warm in Guilin that day. It was so awesome to have a private tour. The car was always waiting for us, with the A/C already on, driver and tour guide opening doors, etc. Very convenient, very efficient. No figuring out how to get somewhere, no busses, no taxis, no extra walking! No trying to read incomprehensible Chinese characters, etc. Very relaxing.

CL and I went back to the hotel to relax before eating dinner and walking around the night market. Didn't buy anything in particular. My best purchase was a bag of roast chestnuts and CL got a passion fruit smoothie.

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Photos

Guilin
Elephant Trunk Hill. There's a similar man-made one in France.

Elephant Trunk Hill
We were there!

1,000 Buddha Cave
There weren't 1,000 in there. This one is supposed to be good luck if you touch its foot.

1,000 Buddha Cave
Prayer Flags hung all over - this one sums it up. :)

More Haze
Guilin view from top of Fobo Hill.

Red Flute Cave
Fascinating rock formations.

Red Flute Cave
Shallow pools of water used as mirrors so you can see the ceiling. Great reflection.

Red Flute Cave
This one is really thin, like a curtain.

Up Yao Mountain
Too much haze - but pretty view from the top.

Superslide Down
Superslide down Yao Mt.

Guilin Tea Plantation
CL and I in hats at the tea plantation.

McFound
We ate at this restaurants both nights. It was cheap and pretty good.

Twin Pagodas
Everything lights up at night in Guilin!

Comments

[tf]

Who is Cherry? your tour guide? The food looks yummy! :)

[SF Girl]

Read in order
you must not be reading ALLLL the entries. haha, j/k. yes, cherry is the tour guide. :)

[Dave R]

I think we took the same trip
By looking at all your pics and comments i think we took the same trip. In oct. 06 i flew into Beijing for 5 days then to Nanning for a cpl more, Then a train ride to Guilin for a few more days then the Boat to Yangshou ( was suprised by all the americans in Yangshou ) I have to say ... it was probably the best trip i ever took and hope to go back to explore some more